
Blaudzun is the stage name of the Dutch singer-songwriter Johannes Sigmond (
Arnhem
Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both banks of ...
, Netherlands, 26 October 1974) who played for years in various bands and projects before pursuing a solo career in 2006.
Career
Named Blaudzun, named after a relatively unknown
Danish cyclist from the 70s, in 2007 he worked on a special collection of songs, originally intended to be a soundtrack for a midnight car drive. The first six songs came together as the self-released EP "Loveliesbleeding". He headed south to Barcelona to complete his self-titled debut that was released April 2008 on
V2 Records Benelux.
Blaudzun toured the Benelux countries in 2008 including Metropolis Festival and supported Norwegian singer
Ane Brun
Ane Brun (; born Ane Brunvoll on 10 March 1976) is a Norwegian songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist of Sami people, Sami origin. Since 2003, she has recorded ten albums, eight of which are studio albums of original material (including a collecti ...
and Mark Eitzel's
American Music Club
American Music Club was an American, San Francisco-based indie rock band, led by singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel. Formed in 1983, the band released seven albums before splitting up in 1995. They reformed in 2003 and released two further albums.
...
.
In September 2009 he finished recording Seadrift Soundmachine (
V2 Benelux) during sessions with
The City of Prague Orchestra, known for its film scores (
Das Leben Der Anderen
''The Lives of Others'' (german: link=no, Das Leben der Anderen, ) is a 2006 German drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck marking his feature film directorial debut. The plot is about the monitoring of East Berlin ...
, and David Lynch' Lost Highway). Blaudzun again wrote most of the songs in his beloved Barcelona and recorded in different studios in the Netherlands and Prague. His second LP Seadrift Soundmachine was released on 12 February 2010. Blaudzun made big impressions that year at the big summer festivals in Holland, including into The Great Wide Open and
Lowlands
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of p ...
. He ended the year with a sold out club tour.
Blaudzun broke through in the Benelux and beyond with his third album Heavy Flowers (2012) which was released in The Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia and the US
Krian Music Group. This was followed by sold out club tours in both the Netherlands and Belgium, festivals in both Europe and the USA including
Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2012,
Dranouter
Dranouter (Dutch, locally known as ''Nouter'') is a village and a '' deelgemeente'' in the municipality of Heuvelland in West Flanders, Belgium. Dranouter was an independent municipality before the 1977 local government reforms. Since then, it has ...
,
The Great Escape,
Sziget,
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
and
Lowlands
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of p ...
and winning awards such as the Dutch Public Broadcasting Award for Best Album of the Year 2012, an Edison for Best Male Artist at the
Dutch Edison Awards and an award for Best Alternative Act at 3FM (Dutch national radio). The single "Flame on My Head" became an instant classic on
Studio Brussel
A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial d ...
and hit both their Hotlist and the Afrekening Charts.
The album Promises of No Man's Land was released by
V2 Benelux (Benelux & World) and
Glitterhouse Records
Glitterhouse Records is a German independent record label and mail order company based in Beverungen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was founded in the mid-1980s. From the late 1980s until the mid-1990s it was the European branch of the American la ...
(Germany, Swiss, Austria) on 7 March 2014. The album entered the Dutch Album top 100 at No. 1 and entered the charts at No. 6 in Belgium.
Promises of No Man's Land was also the title of the first single from the album and was the closing anthem of the daily Olympic program '
NOS Studio Sportwinter' in
Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...
. The video was made b
Kimmo Filmsand directed by Mirka Duijn & Nina Spiering. In April 2014 Blaudzun once again received an award for Best Alternative Act at 3FM. During the summer of 2014 he toured Europe with his band playing on festivals like
Lowlands
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of p ...
,
Pukkelpop
Pukkelpop is an annual music festival that takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium, in mid- to late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland—adjacent to a dual carriageway called ''Kempische Steenweg''—in the ...
in Belgium,
Hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
&
Southside Southside or South Side may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Southside, Queensland, a semi-rural locality in the Gympie Region
Canada
* South Side, Newfoundland and Labrador, a community in the St. George's Bay area on the southwest coast of New ...
in Germany and
Bråvalla in Sweden.
In the spring of 2015 his new singl
Powder Blue the official title song for Dutch movi
Ventoux was released. Previously Blaudzun also composed the official anthe
Bon Voyage!for the 2015 edition of the Tour de France that started in his hometown Utrech.
Awards
* 3voor12 Award – Heavy Flowers – Best Album of the Year 2012
* Edison Award 2013 – Best Male Artist
* 3FM Award 2013 – Best Alternative Act
* 3FM Award 2014 – Best Alternative Act
Discography
Albums
* ''Blaudzun'' (April 2008)
* ''Seadrift Soundmachine'' (12 February 2010)
* ''Heavy Flowers'' (9 January 2012 – European release; 29 January 2013 – US release)
* ''Promises of No Man's Land'' (7 March 2014)
* ''Jupiter, Pt. I'' (7 October 2016)
* ''Jupiter, Pt. II'' (3 March 2017)
* ''_UP_'' (6 April 2018)
* ''Musik Ungeklärter Herkunft (Original Soundtrack)'' (13 December 2019)
* ''LONELY CITY EXIT WOUNDS'' (21 January 2022)
External links
*
References
{{Authority control
Dutch male singer-songwriters
Living people
1974 births
People from Arnhem
21st-century Dutch male singers
21st-century Dutch singers
Glitterhouse Records artists